Taita
The Taita (Wataita) — People of the Hilltop
About
The Taita belong to the coastal Bantu linguistic group and live around the Taita Hills, mostly depending on agriculture. Their total population stands at around 344,000, settled in Kenya's Taita-Taveta County in the southeast. They are believed to have migrated from Central Africa alongside other coastal Bantu communities, later moving south to the Taita Hills following attacks from Cushitic communities. The Taita are organised into three main territorial groups — the Wadawida of the Dawida massif, the Wasagalla of Saghalla, and the Wakasighau of the Kasighau massif — each with its own distinct dialect and customs. Their most celebrated cultural export is the late composer Fadhili Williams, who wrote the beloved love song Malaika in the late 1950s — a song that has since become one of East Africa's most recognisable melodies.
Language
Kidawida (also called Kitaita or Taita) is a Northeast Bantu language of the Niger-Congo family, spoken by around 370,000 to 500,000 people in the Taita Hills region of Taita-Taveta County. Its three primary dialects are Daw'ida (Kidawida), Kisaghala (Saghala), and Kasigau — with the Saghala dialect so distinct it is sometimes considered a separate language in its own right. Within the Dawida dialect alone, numerous sub-dialects exist including Wusi, Kidaya, Mghange, Chawia, Mwanda, Kishamba, Werugha, Wumingu, and Wundanyi. The language has been enriched over centuries by loanwords from Chagga, Pare, Maasai, and Mijikenda — a living record of the Taita's long history of exchange across the Kilimanjaro corridor.
Culture
The Taita believed in one supreme God, Mulungu, and ancestral spirits (Milimu), whom they called upon in times of calamity and misfortune — with evidence of worship and sacrificial remains found in caves across the Taita Hills. Community governance was layered: six clans each held a numerical name reflecting the order of their arrival in the hills, with headmen presiding over councils of elders that resolved disputes over land, water, cattle, and marriage. Initiation was a two-stage process — a physical rite in childhood, followed by a second ceremony years later called Ngasu for boys and Mwari for girls, in which they were given the secrets of the society and prepared for adult responsibilities. Music is the soul of Taita cultural expression: the most fascinating of their traditional dances was Mwazindika, a pepo spirit-possession dance performed for exorcism and the celebration of life — electric, communal, and deeply rooted in the spirit world.